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In my time as a gamer, I've seen good supplements and bad supplements. We all know the bad supplements, the supplements where you buy the product to get information on one item or weapon and ignore the rest. We also know the good supplements as being chocked full of things you want in your game two seconds after opening it that your eyes bug out of your head the first time you open it. This product isn't just good, it's damn good.

The Second Edition of Exalted has been heralded as a tremendous step forward for the line. This supplement falls right inline with the core book. Wonders of the Lost Age is the first volume in the Books of Sorcery set of supplements for the Exalted line. For the uninitiated, a common complaint about Exalted 1st Ed by its fans was the lack of organization in their supplements. This improved as time went forward, but with 2nd Edition, White Wolf is pledging a higher quality of organization and planning.

The book contains an Introduction, 5 Chapters and one Appendix. The Introduction details the concepts that make their first appearance with this supplement. These include Repair and Workshops as well a modification of the Craft (Magitech, making magical items) and detailing Craft (Genesis, the ability to make life or modify a species).

Chapter 1: A History of Wonders has two purposes, a retelling of Exalted History and providing plot hooks. The history retold is specifically from a Magitech prospective. The basic premise is that since the Usurpation where Solars were killed, gods and elementals turned their back on creation and the new rulers of Creation, the Dragon Blooded, didn't have the ability to maintain the artifacts, let alone produce new artifacts when the old ones broke. Resultantly, the Dragon Blooded fought among themselves for control over remaining artifacts and sped up their decay. The plot hooks part of the chapter talk about sections of 1st Age Magitech that is either still functioning or require some repair to get it functioning again, or simply "still out there, somewhere." This section also includes things like a reference to a possible 6th Maiden that died long ago, details of the 1st Age Solar Deliberative Chamber, the observatory at Rathess, and more.

Chapters 2-6 is where the real meat is. These 5 chapters separate the artifacts listed into general categories, Transportation (Chapter 2), Utilitarian and BioMagitech (Chapter 3), Personal Arms and Armor (4), Automata and Crafted Consciousness (5), and Mass Combat (6). Chapter 2 details 1st age Battle and Air Ships, and Personal and Troop Transports. Things as simple looking as a sky surf board and magical boots to complex items as Boba Fett's Slave I to the Five Metal Shrike. The artwork in the whole book is quite good, but here is where it really shines.

Chapter 3 details things that would be useful in everyday life such as the Elemental Exoskeleton, used in large scale construction, a translation crystal, and the thousand comforts lounge. Chapter 3 also details BioMagitech. Before it details the artifacts themselves, the book discusses their origins and the requirements for the doctors to graph them into a living person. These are all forms of prosthetics and other devices that allow a normal person to spend essence.

Chapter 4 does talk about weapons but puts a real shine on the armor part. A not uncommon complaint about the 2nd ed armor in the core book was kind of lame, esp. when compared to the weapons. The armor detailed here answers that and more. While there are plenty of other kinds of armor presented, the spotlight is mainly on the Celestial Battle Armor. This class of armor allows the player and storyteller to make customized armor pieces by having a base suit of armor with powers that you can pick and choose from. These powers include (and are certainly not limited to) Essence Wings, Camouflage, Enhanced Healing and Tracking, and the ability to suck the life directly from an opponent.

Chapter 5 can be summed by calling it Bioengineered life and robots. You have golems that perform basic household and maintenance functions as well as bodyguards and assassins and the like. You also have useful pets, bugs that can build cities and the guild favorite Beasts of Resplendent Liquid, the dinosaur looking creature that can pee heroin.

The shortest chapter is deals with Mass Combat but is by no means lacking quality. Here is where the book details Implosion Bows, Essence Cannons, Panic Projectors and the most feared Soul Breaker Orb, a ball that can kill every living thing in 5 mile radius that doesn't have a perfect defense.

The Appendix discusses Warstriders (Gundums, for those familiar with the series). While this is the third printing of this exact topic (first two in 1st edition), it has new material. Most notable among these is Warstriders with an AI run by a spirit and the signature warstrider Hateful Devourer of Love, a soulsteel warstrider allowed to fall into Lookshy's hands by the Lover Clad in the Raiment of Tears as a means to destroy them.

The books has a picture next to the respective description allowing for quick imagining something when in game as well as quick reference. It has earned it 5 in Style. The book is also a nice springboard for players that want to come up with their own artifacts. My only complaint about the book is that the mass combat section feels like it had the most cuts due to space and the weapons section lacked any weapons that most players would like to call their signature weapon (only 2 were above an artifact rating of 3). But beyond that, the books contents will be most useful in any game. I give it a 4 for Substance.

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